Dygma Raise FAQs

Raise – General FAQs

What makes Dygma Raise different than the rest of the gaming keyboards?

Raise is designed to enhance performance, comfort, and prevent long-term injuries caused by gaming. It combines the tested and validated functionalities with esports professionals with an ergonomic design.

We consider revolutionary the combination of the following features:

Split design. Improved posture is better for your health.

Fully customizable layouts. You can have multiple layouts and toggle instantly between them. Every key is remappable and also can be configured as a macro.

8 thumb keys. The thumb is the strongest and least used finger. The keys are where your thumbs rest so they are easy to access.

Gaming keypad experience and normal typing in the same device. You can detach any side and play with the other. You’ll have more space for your mouse. And if you want a normal typing experience you can just snap both sides together.

All these features take into account reducing the learning curve to zero.

What cables come with Dygma Raise?

Dygma Raise comes with:

2x USB-C to USB-C cables (15cm long) to connect each keyboard to the Huble.

One USB-C to USB-A cable (150cm long) to connect the Huble to your computer.

What is your warranty policy?

Dygma Raise is covered by a 2-year warranty from the date of receipt. The warranty is applicable to the original buyer and is non-transferable. As long as you don’t take it apart or physically break it, you should be covered. If you feel that something isn’t working right, or if you have any questions regarding our warranty, please contact us.

Can I return the keyboard?

If you’re not happy with your Dygma Raise for any reason, please contact us. We have a 30-day return window from the date of delivery. You’ll have to ship it back at your own expense to China via a tracked shipping method. Note that the cost of shipping it back may be significant (depending on where you’re shipping from).

Can I exchange the keyboard if I want different switches?

If you decide you want different switches within 30 days from the time you received the keyboard, you may exchange your unit for a new board. You would have to pay shipping both ways: to ship the old unit back to China (this may get expensive, depending on your location), and to ship the new unit to you. Yes, this does get expensive, unfortunately.

Why is Dygma Raise expensive?

When designing the Raise, we decided not to cut down the features. The consequence is that it is more expensive to manufacture than the vast majority of keyboards because of its many features and premium materials.

Because it is a split keyboard, it’s like manufacturing 2 keyboards, you need double the PCBs and aluminium cases. Also, this is our first product so we don’t have the volume to reduce the manufacturing costs as big brands do.

There’s no other keyboard in the market that offers this wide-ranging combination of awesome features. Just to mention a few:

Split ergonomic design.

8 thumb keys.

Fully customizable layouts. Any key rebindable and macros.

Both sides detachable.

Hot-swappable mechanical switches.

Gaming keypad and keyboard in the same device.

RGB backlight and underglow.

Full aluminium body.

We hope this helps you understand Raise’s price.

Is Raise a good keyboard for programmers? I only play games from time to time.

Yes, this keyboard is good for programmers because of its health benefits and the customization options.

It is awesome for any professional, -programmers, graphic designers, 3D modelers or gamers-, who spends many hours in front of the computer and relies on shortcuts or frequent key combinations.

Raise – The Huble

What is the Huble?

Raise is split into 3 main pieces; the 2 sides and the Huble.

The Huble is the brain of the keyboard; the microprocessor and memory is inside it. It is important because with it, we are able to remove the left half (of the keyboard), and have the right half keep working or the vice versa. That is mainly why we need it as an external piece.

All your settings for the lighting and the key maps are stored in the Huble’s memory.

Is there any extra USB port in Raise?

No, there is not.

In the beginning of the project, we planned to have a hub in the Huble. But due to technicalities and after letting our backers vote on their preference, we decided to remove the USB hub from the Huble.

If you want to learn more about this process, you can read it in our blog.

I'd like to place both sides of the keyboard far apart. Can I buy an extension cable?

Yes, the cables are detachable. They are the standard USB-A to USB-C for the Huble to the computer and USBC to USBC for the keyboard to the Huble. You can purchase a 1m long USB-C to USB-C cable in our shop.

Raise – Mechanical switches

Is Dygma Raise a mechanical keyboard?

What are hot-swappable switches?

Mechanical switches are a standard in gaming but there’s an issue, once you buy your keyboard you are stuck with them until you buy a new one.

With Raise that’s not a problem any more. All our switches are hot-swappable, so you can easily pull them out and replace them with others whenever you want.

Raise – Keycaps

What keycap languages do you offer?

Currently we offer 8 sets of keycaps:

English USA (PBT, ANSI layout)

English UK (PBT, ISO layout)

Spanish (ABS, ISO layout)

German (ABS, ISO layout)

French (ABS, ISO layout)

Nordic (ABS, ISO layout)

Japanese (ABS, ISO layout)

Blank (ABS, ISO layout and ANSI layout)

Raise – Ergonomics

What are the benefits of split keyboards?

Raise is not only split, both sides are also detachable. There are a few direct benefits for your health and performance.

Improved health:

A normal keyboard forces the wrists to bend towards the pinky side of your hand. Rotating the split keyboard halves lets you keep your wrists at a more neutral angle which decreases pressure and strain over time. You can also adjust the total width between the two halves of the keyboard, potentially placing them directly in front of your shoulders and reducing shoulder internal rotation.

Gaming keypad experience

You can detach any sides and play with the other and you’ll have more space for your mouse and extra thumb buttons. And if you want a normal typing experience you can just snap both sides together.

Helps focusing (Anti-flame mode)

If you get frustrated with teammates and enemies and type, Raise can help you stay focused. Playing with one side will prevent you from typing and will help you stay focused.

If you want to type timers you can configure the numpad on whichever side you’re using.

Tenting

We are working in a tenting solution as an accessory, but we are only considering side tenting by now. In the front-back direction we already have a tilting angle of 3 degrees.

Raise being ergonomic, why isn't ortholinear?

Over a year ago when we started this project, our first design was ortholinear. We made multiple prototypes and sold 50 for a closed beta. We tested for two months and reached the conclusion that the learning curve was steep, making it riskier for our first product. We have the intention of making an ortholinear keyboard in the future.

If you are interested in reading about our development process, please check our blog.

Raise – Lights

How does RGB backlight and underglow benefit me in any way?

There’s a practical reason why Raise has RGB Leds, to have visual feedback when you change layouts. In the vast majority of gaming keyboards RGB lighting is just for aesthetic purposes but during our testing we learnt that it reduced user’s learning curve when getting used to multiple layouts.

With Raise, you can create multiple layouts and toggle instantly between them. Every key in every layout is rebindable and can be configured as a macro with its own color.

An example of 2 layout configuration where you could benefit from RGB lighting:

L1 (layout 1): standard typing layout.

L2 (layout 2): Arrows, number pad, F1-12 keys, media controls

If you would like stronger visual feedback you could assign an underglow colour to every layout you create.

Light patterns

Dygma Raise will have all the classic RGB effects such as: chasing effect, breath, solid color, rainbow and so on. For both the backlight and the underglow.

Can I disable or lower the intensity of the underglow or backlight with the customization software?

Yes. You’ll be able to individually control every LED and assign colors depending on the layout you are on and the function the key has.

Is it possible to sync the RGB lighting with or other brands peripherals?

It totally depends on the other brands giving us access so we can sync with them. Our software and firmware are open source, so the other way around it won’t be an issue.

How many LEDs are there in the Raise, and how are they all controlled?

We’re using RGB LEDS, where each small package contains 3 separated LEDs, one for red, blue and green. Each key has an LED, and then we have 30 pointing down on each side for the underglow. This makes 135 RGBs, for 405 separate LEDs in total. We are still tuning the underglow lighting, so this number may change slightly as we go to manufacture.

Controlling that many LEDs uses a lot of pins! A common method to make this easier is to use ‘clever’ LEDs that contain some processing power inside (like the WS2812), this makes it easier to drive long chains of LEDs, but the downside is cost. To keep the cost low we’re using plain RGB LEDs with a special driver that can drive a matrix of up to 75 RGB LEDs. It handles the hard parts like current control and refresh rate so we only need to update what colour we want where over an SPI interface.

Pre-Sales

When will I receive my Dygma Raise?

As a pre-order, we want to send Raises to our backers as soon as we can. We are hoping to send the first batch by the end of March, but it may be a possibility that pre-orders will be sent by May. You can read more about the manufacturing timeline here.

We are doing our best to meet all manufacturing deadlines.

Shipping

Where do you ship?

Dygma Raise ships worldwide. We use //curriers// to get your keyboard to you as quickly and as safely as possible. We ship from China.

How much does shipping cost?

Shipping is $20 per keyboard bundle no matter where in the world you are. If you are ordering more than one keyboard, you will pay $20 per keyboard.

Who is responsible for customs, duties and taxes?

First things first: If you’re ordering from the US, there are no import duties (that’s due to US regulations). If you’re ordering from the EU or elsewhere, you will very likely be required to pay customs and handling charges. These are typically charged by the local shipping company upon arrival. We are not able to estimate or charge these fees in advance, nor do we have any control over them. These charges are unrelated to the shipping charge.

We understand that taxes can be frustrating, but if you order a Dygma Raise and then change your mind because of the taxes your country charges, it means we have to pay UPS to ship it back to us. Therefore, we will not be able to issue a full refund.

You can try to get an estimate of these taxes by searching for “Duty Calculator” (we don’t link to a specific one as each country has its own, usually). The HS code for the keyboard is 84716030103, and we ship from China.

Raise – Configurator

Are keys rebindable? Can I program macros?

Raise is fully configurable. Its configuration software allows you to create multiple layouts and toggle instantly between them. Every key in every layout is remappable and can be configured as a macro.

Keys can have special behaviours if you tap once, several times or hold it. For example, you could configure your Shift key so it behaves this way:

Hold it and press any other key = works like standard Shift key

Tap it once = Escape

Tap it twice successively = Caps Lock

Our software and firmware is open source. This means that anyone can make an improvement or program their own plugins and the whole community can benefit from it.

Why there’s no numpad, arrows or F1-12 keys?

Thanks to Raise’s software you can configure the functions anywhere you want. We decided to not have the physical keys so you have to move your hands less. Raise has the functionality of a full size keyboard with a much smaller layout.

You have can setup the numpad wherever you want in raise. Example:

1st layout: Regular typing layout

2nd layout: Arrows, F-keys, numpad

How to access second layout: configure whatever key you want to use as a modifier. The modifier can work as a toggle (like Caps Lock) or as a momentary layout (as Shift).

The configuration software and firmware is discussed as open source. Is there a location or project page I can go to today to contribute?

The main development of the firmware is here: https://github.com/keyboardio/Kaleidoscope It uses multiple subrepositories to pull in the hardware definitions. Dygma will be providing a few Raise specific repos, for example this one that deals with the hardware:

Would the driver be open source for all the major OSes? So that in the future we can have full control over our keyboard

It works on all major OS’s like GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS. It even works on mobile devices though it’ll disable some LED functions due to power limitations when connected to a mobile device.

It doesn’t require any additional drivers but instead uses the built in generic keyboard drivers from the OS. All the functions such as Macros, Layers etc are handled on-board the keyboard itself with no real interaction from the OS so no extra drivers are required. Unless future OS’s remove their keyboard drivers its going to continue working. So I guess you could say the drivers for a specific OS is as Open Source as the OS itself. The real key here is the firmware being Open Source.

With the firmware and configuration software being GPLv2 and GPLv3+ respectively the Raise will continue to work even with nutty future OS’s as long as there is a programmer willing to maintain it. The GPL is a strong copyleft license so the the code can’t be closed.

What license will the "open source" software and firmware be released under?

Raise – Other Features

What happened to the Spacebar?

The giant space bar is one of the things that we’ve inherited from the typewriter that doesn’t make sense anymore; we don’t have the technical limitations from over 100 years ago.

We’ve added 8 thumb keys in the area that our thumbs rest so they are easy to access. The thumb is the strongest and least used finger and is dexterous enough to handle more than a big key.

Isn’t the spacebar key too small? I’m concerned I’ll misclick it.

The majority of people press a small area of the spacebar. Take a look at how you type and game and you’ll know which would be the best spacebar key location for you.

If you use a large area or use both thumbs, our software allows you to rebind any key. You’ll be able to rebind as many keys as you need for the spacebar.

What are the keys under the Spacebar? Are they comfortable to use?

We’ve called these keys the Under-row. We’ve tested the location of the under-row keys with professional gamers, programmers, designers and more and they loved it. This way you have fast access to more keys in a natural position for your thumbs.

Even though the location may seem weird because no other keyboard has them, they are comfortable to use.

Are they only going to be tenkeyless or are you looking into making a full keyboard one as well?

We will only do 60% keyboards. The reason behind it is that you can create multiple layouts and toggle between them instantly. Also every key in every layout can be remapped and can be a configure as a macro. So you can have the functionality of a full size keyboard in a 60% layout.

We decided to have a compact design is because you can set up multiple fully customizable layouts and can toggle instantly between them. Every key in every layout is remappable and can be configured as a macro.

You won’t need to leave your home row and you’ll have a compact keyboard with the functionalities of a full size one.

Are palm rest detachable? And palm pads?

Our original idea was to have detachable palm rests. We tested with multiple coders, designers and gamers and they all said that they would only remove the palm rests to transport it.

Knowing that our users probably would prefer to use Raise with the palm rests, we decided to not make them detachable to reduce the manufacturing complexity and costs.

Palm pads are detachable so they are easier to clean.

How tall is the palm rest?

The palm rests start at 8mm (0.31in) thick, close to the thumb buttons is 12mm (0.47in) thick and the top part of Raise is 16mm (0.63in) thick. The Palm pads are detachable and are 8mm (0.31in) thick. In the final product this numbers will probably be slightly different because of the different materials and manufacturing techniques.

Right now we only have one thickness for palm pads but for the future we want to have a thinner option too, in the area of 3mm (0.12in).

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